SHANNON WINSLOW - GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY: THE PERILS AND LITERARY POSSIBILITIES OF THE BREACH-OF-PROMISE SUIT

We met Shannon Winslow last year here at My Jane Austen Book Club on occasion of the release of her first Austen-inspired novel, The Darcys of Pemberley (HERE and HERE).

She's back with a new book and a new guest post for the readers of My Jane Austen Book Club. Enjoy Shannon's piece and get a chance to win her For Myself Alone. There are 2 e-book copies and 1 paperback for you! Three winners! The contest is open worldwide and ends on April 15th. Leave your comment , add your e-mail address and choose between the two formats, e-book or paperback.

The Darcys of Pemberley, a sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, was my first novel, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. But for my second book, I set myself a new challenge: to write an entirely original story in the Jane Austen mode. I wondered what else she might have written had she lived. What direction would her creativity have carried her next?

Money (the want of it, more specifically) is a reoccurring theme in Jane Austen’s novels as it was in her own life – the well-bred young lady of small fortune, who had to marry or risk sinking into poverty (like Miss Bates). That’s how my heroine in For Myself Alone begins as well. But then I turn the tables by giving her a large, unexpected inheritance. Instead of solving all her problems, however, the money simply creates new ones, making Jo the target of fortune hunters and ultimately an unwilling party to a breach-of-promise suit.

Breach-of-promise suits are an intriguing phenomenon unique to the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and we think of them as being brought by a jilted woman against her former fiancé. And so it typically was in later years.  With a shorter “self life” and a more fragile reputation, a long engagement that came to nothing was far more likely to damage the intended bride’s future prospects than the groom’s. But as it turns out, early on in their history these suits were just as often filed by a jilted man, claiming emotional trauma or financial loss.

Going to court was perilous, though, often adding insult to injury. Tainted reputations could be further tarnished. And as for the monetary judgments, juries were notoriously unpredictable. They often ignored the evidence and the judge’s instructions to side with the barrister who put on the best show, awarding either nothing or an outrageous sum according to their collective whim. Defendants sometimes went to extreme lengths to avoid paying too, preferring imprisonment or even emigrating instead.

Breach-of-promise suits were a painfully messy business. But I showed no mercy; I threw my unsuspecting heroine right into the middle of one. How did she fare? Oh, no; I’ll never tell!

Shannon Winslow

The Book


Set in nineteenth century Hampshire and Bath, For Myself Alone is the tale of Josephine Walker, a bright, young woman whose quiet life is turned upside-down by an unexpected inheritance. With a tempting fortune of twenty thousand pounds, she’s suddenly the most popular girl in town. Yet Jo longs to be valued for who she is, not for her bank balance. She cannot respect the men who pursue her for her money, and the only

one she does admire is considered the property of her best friend. Now, even the motives of her new fiancé are suspect. Does he truly love her for herself alone? There’s one sure, but extreme, way to find out… if she has the courage to take it.
You'll find For Myself Alone at Barnes and Noble as a Nook  or at Amazon as a paperback or a Kindle book.

The  Author 

Shannon Winslow specializes in creating novels and short stories for fans of Jane Austen. The Darcys of Pemberley was her debut novel in 2011. For Myself Alone – a standalone, Austen-inspired story – now follows. She is currently working on the next installment of her Pride andPrejudice series, which is entitled Returnto Longbourn. Ms. Winslow lives with her husband in the log home they built in the countryside south of Seattle, where she writes and paints in her studio facing Mt. Rainier. For more information, visit www.shannonwinslow.com